Oh - Snow!

We had to collect Number One Son from Manchester Airport at stupid o'clock this morning - on a Sunday with light traffic it's not much more than a one hour journey. I checked real-time arrivals before setting off - luckily - and found that the 7.30 a.m. arrival was now 9.00 due to storms along the Eastern Seaboard of the USA. Okay - we might have got up too early, but we could have another hour and a half at home and not set off until 8.00.

Weather? Frosty with a light dusting of snow. No thaw-freeze so unlikely to be black ice, but better take it steady. We avoided the back roads and took the Woodhead Pass over the Pennines, and arrived in Manchester about 9.15.

And - oh, yes - we had Diezel the puppy with us. 13 weeks old and cute as bugs' ears. We gave him half his usual amount of breakfast at 7.00, (an hour before setting off) safe in the knowledge that we'd be home by 11.00 for his second meal of the day.

Ha!
J's plane touched down by 9.15 but only showed on the board as 'Landed' rather than 'Arrived' or 'Baggage Reclaim'. The weather was so cold that apparently Manchester was having difficulty with the sky-bridges or somesuch at the landing gates plus there was snow on the runway - but unfortunately they weren't very forthcoming with information. I'm surprised there was so much disruption this morning, even before the main snow storms of the day. Had it not have been for the delays at Manchester we could have been back home before the worst of it set in.

Diezel had a fine time being admired by passers by in Terminal 2 and no one objected too much to him beign in there. he wasn't the only dog, and forcing people to stand outside with them would have been cruel (more to the people than the dogs) It was also good experience for him on his road to puppy socialisation. But the deklays seemed to go on forever. A 7.30 scheduled time which became a 9.00 landing turned into an 11.00 disembarkation, by which time it had snowed softly, but substantially. Son collected, as we got out of the airport the roads were starting to get white over with snow, so rather than risk the Wookhead Pass we came back via the motorway (M60/M62), where traffic crawled nose to tail when it crawled at all. We could have walked faster. SIX FRIGGING HOURS!!!!!! We got home after 5.00.

I do understand that driving steadily on the M62 is desirable, especially when it's all frozen slush and packed, polished white stuff, but three and a half of those journey hours were nose-to-tail from the M62 off-ramp through Huddersfield where the roads were passable with care. A mere ten miles or so. Snow was not the problem, but traffic congestion was. Were people actually out and about trying to get their last minute Christmas Shopping done? If we hadn't had to pick J up from Manchester there's no way we'd have even attempted to fire up the Ford on a day like today.

During all this Diezel was a star. He hardly made a squeak, but must have thought food was going out of fashion by the time we got back home after five, having missed three meals altogether (as had we). He's not quite sure what to make of the snow, so tomorrow I'm guessing there will be several games of chase the snowball!

Oh - Snow!

We had to collect Number One Son from Manchester Airport at stupid o'clock this morning - on a Sunday with light traffic it's not much more than a one hour journey. I checked real-time arrivals before setting off - luckily - and found that the 7.30 a.m. arrival was now 9.00 due to storms along the Eastern Seaboard of the USA. Okay - we might have got up too early, but we could have another hour and a half at home and not set off until 8.00.

Weather? Frosty with a light dusting of snow. No thaw-freeze so unlikely to be black ice, but better take it steady. We avoided the back roads and took the Woodhead Pass over the Pennines, and arrived in Manchester about 9.15.

And - oh, yes - we had Diezel the puppy with us. 13 weeks old and cute as bugs' ears. We gave him half his usual amount of breakfast at 7.00, (an hour before setting off) safe in the knowledge that we'd be home by 11.00 for his second meal of the day.

Ha!
J's plane touched down by 9.15 but only showed on the board as 'Landed' rather than 'Arrived' or 'Baggage Reclaim'. The weather was so cold that apparently Manchester was having difficulty with the sky-bridges or somesuch at the landing gates plus there was snow on the runway - but unfortunately they weren't very forthcoming with information. I'm surprised there was so much disruption this morning, even before the main snow storms of the day. Had it not have been for the delays at Manchester we could have been back home before the worst of it set in.

Diezel had a fine time being admired by passers by in Terminal 2 and no one objected too much to him beign in there. he wasn't the only dog, and forcing people to stand outside with them would have been cruel (more to the people than the dogs) It was also good experience for him on his road to puppy socialisation. But the deklays seemed to go on forever. A 7.30 scheduled time which became a 9.00 landing turned into an 11.00 disembarkation, by which time it had snowed softly, but substantially. Son collected, as we got out of the airport the roads were starting to get white over with snow, so rather than risk the Wookhead Pass we came back via the motorway (M60/M62), where traffic crawled nose to tail when it crawled at all. We could have walked faster. SIX FRIGGING HOURS!!!!!! We got home after 5.00.

I do understand that driving steadily on the M62 is desirable, especially when it's all frozen slush and packed, polished white stuff, but three and a half of those journey hours were nose-to-tail from the M62 off-ramp through Huddersfield where the roads were passable with care. A mere ten miles or so. Snow was not the problem, but traffic congestion was. Were people actually out and about trying to get their last minute Christmas Shopping done? If we hadn't had to pick J up from Manchester there's no way we'd have even attempted to fire up the Ford on a day like today.

During all this Diezel was a star. He hardly made a squeak, but must have thought food was going out of fashion by the time we got back home after five, having missed three meals altogether (as had we). He's not quite sure what to make of the snow, so tomorrow I'm guessing there will be several games of chase the snowball!